Chapter 01

Hey! Thanks to Totidem Verbis, because she is the most amazing person in the world. Chapter 1 is fixed and new and improved!

So big shout out to my favorite Author for making it possible.

As always, I don't own anything.

Why, oh why, did I decide to move in the middle of the freaking summer? It is hotter than Satan's balls outside right now, which I'm guessing are really hot since that expression is used frequently to describe heat, and here I am moving into my new house in the middle of June.

What possessed me to do this, you ask? Well, let's see. My dad recently passed away, well two years ago so maybe not that recently, of natural causes they told me. Can you call a house fire a natural cause? He was Japanese and my mother is…I have no idea. I don't even know who my mother is actually. She died giving birth to me. Tragic, huh? I always feel this ugly amount of guilt about killing Mama as a baby, but Daddy told me she lost too much blood and her heart stopped.

Anyways, back on track! I'm moving from the United States to Japan. My father's home country. He has property here in Japan, with a nice house and everything. We used to come here every summer for vacation, so the house isn't some shabby old thing. It's in good shape. Daddy did have a housekeeper that took care of it, but when he died the housekeeper quit because I wasn't paying her.

I know what you're thinking, but I'm not a bad person. I just didn't think that it made sense to pay someone to go clean and take care of a house that I wasn't ever going to use again. Or so I thought. A few months ago, I decided to move to Japan. My home in the States just wasn't the same without Daddy and the memories were too painful. So I sold the house that I lived in with my Daddy and used the money from the sale to move with.

Since the house hasn't had a regular caretaker for over two years, it's rather ugly at the moment. The grass is way too high, the picket fence that completely surrounds the house has chipped paint, and the gate has been kicked down. The house is dirty, smells like dust and moth balls (I'm not sure where the moth balls came from), and I have to clean all of it by myself.

That brings me back to wondering why I'm doing this in the middle of the damn summer. I've come full circle.

I guess I should introduce myself, huh? My name is Natasha, and my last name is…maybe I'll tell you later. I'm twenty-three years old, and I'm a graduate from some no-name university in the States.

Back to me suffering in the heat and making the house livable again. Yes, well, I officially have the lawn under control. The grass is only a few centimeters high now and not waving four feet off the ground. Can you imagine how long it took me to mow four foot tall grass? It was only a foot shorter than me! That's right, I am exactly five feet tall. I'm also kinda skinny, I guess you could say. My max weight is one hundred twenty-three pounds, so I have a little meat on my bones.

I'm getting off track again. I think it's the heat getting to me. To me, it felt like an eternity passed while I cut all that damn grass. To make matters worse, the house sits on four acres of land. So there was a lot of grass that I went crazy on. If anyone walked by and heard crazy laughter, that was just me attacking the grass with a weed eater before busting out the lawn mower. Did I forget to mention that it was HOT?!

After taming the yard, I set out to get the house cleaned. I opened the door and, I kid you not, dust came pouring out like a wave. It was like turning on the world's largest dust faucet. I quickly opened every window to air the house out, but the smell of moth balls still wouldn't go away. I swept, mopped, vacuumed, dusted, and polished every single room in that house. Starting with the living room and kitchen, then moving on to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The furniture that was here, I had picked up and sent off to get cleaned so I could have space to work with.

While I was cleaning one of the bedrooms, the house is a three bedroom and two bath, I found the source of the moth ball smell. Finally. I guess the old housekeeper put them in the closets to keep moths from eating the clothes in there. It's a silly (not to mention stinky) superstition if you ask me. Daddy's bedroom was actually clean compared to the rest of the house; a complete contrast to my own filthy room. His clothes were even still hanging up and smelled like they had just come out of the laundry. I even pulled the fabric close to make sure that it wasn't my imagination.

Yes, I cried. I laid on his bed, which still smelled like peppermint with a hint of his aftershave, and cried like a baby. After collecting myself, I cleaned and kept his room just like it was. No one was going to be using it anyway.

Around four in the afternoon, the cleaning company people showed up with the living room furniture and kitchen stuff. Oh, and my bed. With my instructions, they set everything up where I wanted it. By the time they were done, it was 5:30. Seeing as how I haven't eaten all day, except for a single apple for breakfast, I was hungry. Ravenously hungry.

I ordered Chinese takeout and decided to take a shower while waiting, because I was sweaty and dirty. (I guess I forgot to mention that before I arrived at the house, I turned the electricity and water on. It's a good thing too, because showering right now is a necessity.) The house had central heat and air, so it only took about an hour before the house was cooled off.

Showering felt amazing. The feel of being grimy and sticky isn't one of the best things in the world. The Chinese food arrived faster than I was expecting, because I heard the doorbell ringing just as I got out of the shower. I hurriedly got dressed in a pair of sweats and a loose gray tee shirt. Toweling most of the water out of my shoulder length brown hair, I let it hang loose to air dry. Oh, I guess I can tell you my eye color too. They're hazel, with more green than blue, and I have a muddy red ring surrounding my pupil with a dark blue ring around my iris. (I'm telling the truth. My eyes are weird looking.)

Opening the door, I smiled at the delivery boy. He was obviously still in high school and working as a delivery boy to either save money or to help his family. I paid for the food while thanking him, gave him an extra tip, and closed the door. My kitchen is moderately sized; it's big enough to fit a table that sits six with enough leftover room to move around freely without obstruction. A small window with a little place to have some plants was above the sink, the refrigerator was to the right of the sink, and there was about a foot and a half of counter space between the two. A dishwasher was to the left of the sink, the counter stretched around in a right angle, and the stove sat perpendicular to the fridge. There were a total of fifteen cabinets in the kitchen, with a small pantry closet on the other side of the kitchen. The countertop was a white granite marble, and the floor was (obviously) wood.

Grabbing a bottle of water, I sat down at the table to eat my food. Tomorrow, I would finish cleaning the other bathroom and bedroom. Then I'd go into town to buy some paint for the fence. The other bedroom was probably going to be turned into an art studio. I mean, art is what I majored in at college. Well, it was a lower degree. I technically majored in the Culinary Arts and continued on to a Master's degree.

Yes, I am a brainy person. I graduated college in just four years with a Master's in the Culinary Arts and a Bachelor's in Art. I love to cook and paint; they're my favorite things to do in the world. Daddy loved my cooking. Moving on! Next week, I'm going to have to go out job hunting. I may have money now from selling the house, but I'm still going to need a job.

Sighing, I finished my food and threw the empty containers in the trash. I turned the lights off and made sure that the windows and doors were locked before going to my room for the night. It was only a little after eight, but I was tired. I blame the grass. Flopping down on the bed, without bothering to crawl under the covers, my body sunk down against the mattress like I was made of lead. I snuggled into my pillow and instantly fell asleep.

Better right? Hopefully soon, I will the rest if the chapters all up and running and fixed. Hang in there with me please.

I am updating this story as it is being edited.